What You Need to Know to Watch ‘The Lord of the Rings’ Show

If you’re like us, you’re getting ready to watch the brand new Prime Video series The Rings of Power, based on J.R.R. Tolkien’s epic world of Middle-earth from The Lord of the Rings. Despite the new show’s title, The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power is not a direct adaptation of the Lord of the Rings books. Instead, it’s drawn from the books’ appendices, as well as from Tolkien’s The Silmarillion. 

That material is a lot less well-known than the main Lord of the Rings saga. So before The Rings of Power premieres, you might want a little background on what the show is drawn from, and the characters, stories, and ideas it will likely explore. That’s exactly what our latest Lord of the Rings video is all about. In it, we break down thousands of years of fictional Middle-earth history in under 11 minutes. It’s everything you need to know before The Rings of Power premiere. Watch it below:

If you liked our video bringing you up to speed on everything The Lord of the Rings before the premiere of The Rings of Power, check out more of our videos below, including our look at all kinds of Lord of the Rings trivia, our breakdown of all the stuff you didn’t know about The Hobbit, and our full explainer of another classic work of epic fantasy fiction, Dune. Plus, there’s tons more over at ScreenCrush’s YouTube channel. Be sure to subscribe to catch all our future episodes. The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power premieres on Prime Video on September 1.